I ll Dream Of You Again
by TheSkySpiritsTalentShow
Summary: They told him he had been in a coma for three years. Car accident. NO! He wanted to say. NO! TAKE ME BACK! But he had no idea what that couldve meant.
1. Chapter 1

_~ One day I will leave this world and dream myself into reality._

_Crazy Horse ~_

"Carlos? Oh good heavens, CARLOS!"

_Carlos…_

"Doctor! Get a doctor in here!"

_My sweet, precious Carlos…_

"Doctor, I think…"

_Please…_

"I think he´s waking up!"

_Don´t leave me…_

Carlos´ eyes fluttered open. He blinked, then had to shut them again. After being in the dark for so long, he could barely tolerate the strong glow of the fluorescent lights above him.

He heard excited voices, steady beep-beep-beeps of a machine. Hands were touching him, squeezing his fingers, kisses were placed on his forehead.

Faces…all around him were faces and gradually he started to recognize them.

Mother, father, aunt, brother, sister in law, uncle, friends…family…

They told him he had been in a coma for three years.

Car accident.

It messed him up pretty badly. They weren´t sure if he´d ever wake up.

Carlos felt numb. He felt sick. He wanted to bury his face into the pillow and cry. Scream.

´NO!´ He wanted to say. ´NO! TAKE ME BACK!´

But he had no idea what that could´ve meant.


	2. Chapter 2

Carlos´ recovery was fast. Two days after he woke up from his coma, the doctors told him he was free to go. They gave him his clothes, wished him good luck and told them they didn´t want to see him in here again.

His mother was waiting in her car for him, ready to take him home. As soon as he collapsed in the back seat, she started the engine.

"I missed you so much, Carlos." She started talking before Carlos had even finished buckling himself in. "Things were rather quiet around here without you rambling on about the new scientific discovery you wanted to make or how your newest experiment was going.

The dark haired scientist managed a weak laugh. "Yeah, I can´t wait to step foot into my lab again either."

"Pascal and Lisa made sure to keep your place top notch. We hope you would pull through."

"Thanks, mother."

Slowly the conversation died down. There wasn't much to say on Carlos´ end and his mother settled for the comfortable silence, seeing as how she couldn´t possibly fill her son in the past three years that he had been gone in a ten minute drive.

They finally pulled up in front of the small apartment building, the sight of the uncut shrubbery and clean, curtained windows making Carlos´ stomach twist in nostalgia.

"Are you going to be alright, hon?" His mother asked. Her son leaned forward and kissed her cheek.

"Yes mother. Thanks."

"There´ll be a Welcome Back party on Sunday." She said, reaching out for his hand.

"Okay."

And then Carlos was outside, out of the car, waving goodbye to his mother as she slowly pulled out, an all too familiar expression of worry on her face.

Carlos turned and went in. The place hadn´t changed much and now after being abandoned by the scientist for so long, it lost the homey spark it once held.

The smell of fresh paint and potted flowers filled his sense but all Carlos could think was, ´this is not my home.´

The feeling vanished once he stepped into his apartment room. Pictures of kin and scientific events hung on his wall, along with some surreal acrylic paintings.

Carlos walked around, letting the familiar sights and smells of the apartment sink in. There was his small kitchen table that he found horribly ugly, so he gave it a new coat of color. Long story short, Carlos now uses a huge, white tabletop cloth to cover up the mess.

His shelf with all the awards he had ever gotten. From science fairs in school to trophies and certificates.

The little blue couch he bought from e-bay. All these minute things that made his home his. Something was missing, though. Something important. Carlos couldn´t remember what.

Was it a painting he had forgotten to hang up all these years ago? Or had he a girlfriend he just couldn´t remember? Or even just a phone number in his jacket from a pretty blonde at a bar he had been meaning to call back?

Carlos couldn´t recall. The feeling nagged at him and feeling exhausted from everything, he decided to go to bed, despite it being five in the afternoon.

His bed sheets were already changed, not covered in dust like he had been expecting. Making a mental note to thank his brother and Lisa later, the scientist buried his face into his pillow and fell asleep.

He dreamed.

He dreamed of bowling balls that shot missiles at him.

He dreamed of bleeding while a voice sobbed in his ear.

He dreamed of warm lips, gentle and shy.

He dreamed of blood trickling down walls, a fierce feline growl and a soft whisper that chanted his name, sending hot tingles down his spine.

He felt safe, ecstatic.

Then his breathing halted, his heart sped up and he awoke with a gasp.

A knock on the door startled Carlos into almost dropping the liquid filled test tube he was holding.

He let out a string of Spanish curses and tentatively placed it back into his holder before he yelled, "Coming!"

Carlos crossed over carpeted floor with a smooth stride, relieved to find that the tension of earlier this morning had faded.

He woke up from his dream, shaky and disorientated, a painful pressure behind his eyes. Carlos had been in his lab ever since, science taking his mind off the unpleasantries once again.

The front door swung open and he was greeted by beaming faces of his brother and sister-in-law.

"Carlos! Oh, it´s so _good_ to see you again! Well, see you conscious." Lisa, the round, bright eyed blonde moved forward and embraced Carlos in a warm, bone crushing hug.

The scientist leaned in, feeling his older brother join them in the embrace.

"I missed you both." Carlos muttered against Lisa´s shoulder. He was vaguely aware of wet spots forming silently on her blue vest.

"You as well, brother."

They parted again and for a heartbeat´s moment, the room was filled with content silence.

Pascal broke it by motioning behind him.

"We brought some groceries, so-"

"Thanks, really, you´re too kind."

"Hey, someone has to look after my post comatose bro, right? Now, enough chitchat, let´s make some breakfast."

Over a typical breakfast of eggs, pancakes, and toast, Pascal and Lisa took time to fill Carlos in on events he missed out on; newcomers to this world, deaths of celebrities and friends, buildings that were constructed and catastrophic events.

Carlos listened with interest, but his mind kept returning to one question, the one that had been swimming in his thoughts ever since he got out of the hospital.

"Hey…what actually happened that night?" He asked as Pascal paused to take a breath.

"What? Oh, you mean-"

Carlos waved a hand impatiently, urging him to continue.

"Well, you know it was a car crash, right? Right. From what they told me, the woman that had crashed into you was drunk. She must have not seen you."

"Did…did she make it?"

Silence.

Lisa sighed and placed her hand over Carlos´, a sympathetic look in her eyes.

"She didn´t make it through the night. Doctors said her heart kept stopping and ultimately they couldn´t bring her back."

"That´s…terrible…" Guilt twisted his stomach into a tight knot and he no longer felt hungry. Even if he hadn´t been the one who had been driving drunk, he still felt responsible for her death.

"Do you know her name?" Maybe he could find her in the local graveyard and pay her respect.

"Yeah, Maureen Cardinal."

"…what?"

_Then there´s intern Maureen._

"I said, her name was Maureen Cardinal."

_Her sister came up to me once, asked me if I could employ her little sibling. Family troubles, Dana said. Maureen needed a job. So I agreed._

"Carlos, honey, are you okay? You look a little faint."

_I don´t think she likes me very much, though. She holds me responsible for all of their deaths._

"I- I know her!"

_But they were all accidents, I swear! I attend to every one of their funerals! I couldn´t have known!_

"What?" Pascal frowned. "How?"

_Maureen also blamed me for putting her sister in danger that day Dana was trapped in the park._

"I do- I don´t know! I just do!"

"Carlos, I think you should calm down. You´ll hurt yourself."

_But you believe me, right?_

Carlos had sprung up from his chair and was now pacing around the dining room table, muttering frantically to himself, running his fingers through his hair.

"I know her, I don´t know how, but I´ve met her before. Where, though?"

"Carlos." Pascal caught the other´s arm as he passed him, and turned the smaller male around to face him. "Carlos. Calm down. Take a deep breath."

The scientist obliged, finally relaxing. Only then did the couple realize how pale he was.

"Carlos, how long have you been up today?"

"Uh, since…" he woke up early after his weird dream. "Three am, I think?"

"Three am!"

"Yeah…nightmare."

Lisa shot her husband a worried glance. Pascal turned back to Carlos.

"Alright, you need to sleep now. You´ve only been out of the hospital since about a day."

"But, I need to-"

"Sleep."

Defeated, Carlos retreated back into his bedroom. He collapsed on his bed, hearing the others talk about him in hushed tones. He couldn´t make anything out, but he had a pretty good assumption of what they were saying.

The scientist was sure he couldn´t fall asleep, not after breakfast and definitely not after the strange discovery he had just made. Sleep tugged at him, until he finally gave up and let it pull him under.

The next moment, he opened his eyes and found himself in a dark bedroom. At first, he thought he had slept the day away, until he realized he was dreaming.

Carlos looked around warily. Dim white light with just a touch of a violet hue spilled in from a curtained window. The curtains were drawn aside, but were black and heavy. If an emergency occurred, they were perfect in concealing the inner room from the outside terrors.

There was a small desk in the corner, topped with objects that looked like crystals and glass bottles. The strangest thing he saw was a small metal cage containing a single book.

Shelves lined the wall filled with unrecognizable trinkets. A closet stood towering next to the door.

At last Carlos turned his gaze to the bed. It was fairly big and he saw why. He had a companion.

A slim figure lay on its side, their back turned to him. Despite the delicate structure, it was obviously a male.

In the soft glow of what was presumably the moon, Carlos could make out moving shadows dancing over the man´s bare upper body. He squinted. They looked like animated tattoos.

Drawings of eyes, tentacles and small symbols adorned the pale skin. Carlos stared, fascinated.

Then the other began to shift. Their breathing quickened and they twitched, nestling deeper into the mattress.

"Didn´t you tell me, Carlos," The man said, his voice deep and beautiful. "That the human mind can perceive someone staring at them, even whilst asleep?"

"Uh…yeah." Carlos answered before he could wonder how this person knew him.

The other gave a small grunt in response. "I grew used to with having a faceless old woman watching me sleep secretly every night since birth. But I can always feel _you_ watching me."

He said it in a teasing tone, but Carlos could hear the giddiness beneath it, like he was overjoyed of having the scientist himself give him so much attention.

"I guess…" Carlos said dumbly, blaming his dull response on how abstruse this dream was.

The other finally turned around. Just when Carlos had thought it couldn´t get stranger, he was proven wrong.

The smaller male had soft blond hair, so pale it was almost white. He had a sharp nose, thin lips and three violet glowing eyes. Two in the original position and one in the center of his forehead.

It looked fairly different, though. It resembled more of a drawing of an eye, not an actual facial feature. While the other two irises shone, the entire extra eye was illuminated.

The ordinary eyes blinked and the third one followed a few seconds after, repeating the gesture in a more lazy fashion.

"Wh-what, why- is that? No…that can´t be!" Carlos stammered, trying to make sense of all this. It´s just a dream, he told himself. In this fantasy, anything can happen.

The man just smiled. He reached out and gently brushed a stray, dark lock out of the scientist´s eyes.

"Let´s go back to sleep, Carlos."

Carlos froze as soon as the cold fingers touched his skin. His mind was telling him to be scared, to fight or flee. His body leaned into the contact, his heart beat hard. He felt the urge to wrap his arms around this strange person. To kiss him on his blond strands and fall asleep with him.

The blonde scooted closer and nestled into the other´s chest, taking one of Carlos´ hands and holding it near.

"Goodnight, Carlos."

The room began to get dark and his vision faded. He felt the gentle brush of lips on his fingers.

"Goodnight."


End file.
